Aomori Nebuta Festival

I'm sorry to this late post, due to our relocation/moving stuff I was too busy to post and update my blog. We left Misawa, Japan already but I will continue to post pictures which I missed during my stay in Japan and I will still post my travel photos wherever I maybe ;-). Sayonara Misawa, I will miss Japan so much!!!
We left Japan, Sept. 13, 2010. My travelog continues......

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August 7, 2010 Aomori Nebuta Festival- it was indeed fully packed with people and turps (hehehe), we couldn't find a place to sit, the people reserved their spots by laying down their turps on the ground. We arrived at the ASPAM place about 3pm just right after the Nebuta parade. We missed the parade so we decided to stay to wait for the 2 hour fireworks which started at 7pm.
The parade is held every year from August 2 to August 7, where the floats are carried through the city during the evening from August 2-6, and during the daytime on August 7. A two- hour fireworks show is held on the evening of the final day while the float is carried into the sea.
Due to overwhelming people who watched this festival we didn't even get to see the floats on the water and we left after an hour of fireworks (around 8pm) just to avoid the traffic jam and to catch the train before its last trip. I didn't get to take pictures of the floats during night time so all my pictures were taken after the parade where the floats were parked in their own hangar (or whatever you called that floats parking spots hehehe).
I would suggest that you should see this festival during Aug 2 to 6 to avoid the crowd and not during the last day, well if you don't want to see the fireworks but if you want to see it better bring your own turps or chairs and you have to be there early in the morning.

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Aomori Nebuta Festival is a Japanese summer festival that takes place in Aomori City, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. The festival is the most popular tourists attraction of any of the country's nebuta festivals.
According to wikipedia, "Nebuta" refers to the float of a brave warrior-figure which is carried through the center of the city, while dancers wearing a unique type of costume called haneto (ハネト^?) prance around in time with the chant Rasserā (ラッセラー^?). In the local dialect, participation in the festival is inquired using the adjective haneru (ハネル^?, ex. "今日もハネル?" or "Are you going to haneru today?"), which was derived from the Japanese spelling of the haneto costume and the adjective haneru (跳ねる^?, "bounce").

Chuson-ji Temple

Konjikido (Golden Hall)

Torii

Hondo (Main Hall)

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Chuson-ji Temple

Chuson-ji Temple is located in Hiraizumi. Iwate Prefecture, 2 hour and a half drive from Misawa. We went to this trip the same day when we went to Geibi Gorge (from my previous post).

At first, I thought Chuson-ji temple was just a one huge temple, but I was wrong the temple itself consists of halls, museums and other buildings which you can see on my above pictures.

The Golden Hall or Konjikido is the only remaining example of a building from the Fujiwara era which can be found in Chuson-ji Temple. The mummified remains of four generations of Fujiwara lords rest inside the daises.

The Main Hall (Hondo) is the center for services and rituals. Most of Buddhist services take place in the Main Hall.

Note: No cameras allowed inside the Main Hall and Golden Hall but you can check their website to see what's inside the hall, here it is:

http://www.chusonji.or.jp/guide/precincts/konjikido.html

Geibi Gorge

The cliff

Our boat

The bridge

Carps

The "wishing wall"

Geibi Gorge

I was so excited to post these pictures from the trip we had yesterday so I uploaded them and posted here now. It's really indeed amazing scenic views!!!

We went to Geibi Gorge or Geibikei in Iwate prefecture, it's about 4 hour-drive from Misawa. The trip was long but it's really worth to see these beautiful sceneries.

I enjoyed the boat ride, our boatman even sang the "song of Geibi" it's a folk song of Japan. Though I haven't understood any of the lyrics I enjoyed it hehehe. Our boatman is very friendly and accommodating he even let us paddle the boat with the long bamboo pole. My daughter and I tried it just for a pose on our camera hehehe. We even had a free foot spa, along the side of the falls. So hot but it's so relaxing.

The Geibi gorge is approximately 2 kilometers long with 100-meter precipitous cliffs.

Excerpt from the brochure:

"Geibi Gorge, where fantastically-shaped rock formations tower high above, and the lush greenery celebrates the glory of the seasons. Numbered one of the most picturesque spots in Japan, this beautiful gorge was carved from strata of limestone by the Satetsu River."

Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival (Part 2)

Hirosaki Castle with the cute Japanese Ladies posing on the side ;-)

Hanami (Flower Viewing), picnic under the trees

The Inner South Gate

The big clock at Hirosaki Arboretum

Mt Iwaki View

People at Firing Squad hehehe actually they're posing for the Mt Iwaki view

Here's the another view of Mt Iwaki and to see why the people were standing along the fence

The Bridge

The Food Booths

Another food booths

Grilled Mochi

Grilled Mochi (sweet rice)

Shrimp costs 600 yen (~$6.50) a piece (!!!!)

Chicken karaaga

Tako yaki (octopus ball)

Toy Store

Choco Banana

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This is the continuation of my post on Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival. Since we didn't get to see the full bloom of the cherry blossom we just enjoyed our trip by eating a lot of food from the food booths. Do I have to say only "cherry tress" now? hehehe since no blossom at all?

Some people were eating under the cherry blossom trees which they called "hanami" I feel so envy with them, they're so very happy eating food, drinking beers and playing some card games. And while Japanese people are enjoying their "hanami", my children and I just sat on the grass along the side of the road and found some plastic bags to sit on and ate our barbecue, grilled corn, choco banana, yaki soba while viewing the people who pass by our front :-) hmmm what do you think should I call that?? I don't think that's hanami hehehe since there were not eating under the trees ;-). I wish my husband was there that day so he could bring/carry some folding chairs for us LOL.

Oh well...I hope you enjoy my pictures, I know it took so long for my part 2 but I was so busy at home (doing facebook LOL).

By the way, we may be moving out soon from Japan and go back to US sometime this year (our tour was cut short from our 3 year tour). So I will be taking more pictures of Japan while we're still here and share the best pictures here on my blog ;-) so don't miss my posts, my few months in Japan ;-)

Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival 2010

Sakura (cherry blossom)

another cherry blossom

"Weeping" Cherry Blossoms (but not fully bloomed yet)

Hirosaki Castle view (see the cherry blossoms were not fully bloomed), young teenagers were playing cards along the side of the road ;-)

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Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival (April 23 to May 5, 2010)

These photos were taken last April 24, 2010 when we went to Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival. We signed up for the ITT (Information, Tickets and Travel) Trip on base for this festival 2 months prior this date just to get seats (and so as not to drive up there). Usually this trip is sold out fast, so I bought the tickets during the first day of sale and we got on the 3rd bus already. Unfortunately we didn't know what would be the weather this day......the cherry blossoms were not fully bloomed yet. This year the spring is so late and same with the cherry blossoms. Last year, we went to Hirosaki same week as this date (last week of April) and the cherry blossoms were everywhere, pretty nice. You really can't predict the weather.

Luckily, I found 2 (out of 2,600) cherry blossoms tree which were "quite" bloomed so I took the pictures (first and second photos)....at least I saw some ;-)

The festival for this year started April 23 and ends May 5.

If you want to see my last year's photos in Hirosaki Festival, just click this.... "click" . It would be the same view anyway but different year hehehe.

I will post more pictures when I have time.

Wait...I wasn't joking when I said I found 2 trees.....here's the photo.